My bikes have a mishmash of Planet Bike and Cateye rear blinkies on them, but I especially like the CateyeLED front lights for price vs. brightness comparison. Several of my bike nerd friends rock the battery-powered fork-mounted that guarantee sheer lighting power, but they have to be careful to keep those things charged.Carry a backup LED light just in case.

If you can't decide on a handlebar-mounted front light, the Petzl headlamp mounted on a helmet also seems to be a good investment.

How's everyone's fall season going? I finally finished that damn cyclocross bike last night (an old Motebecane frame with a 700 wheelset, re-dished for an 18-teeth singlespeed cog, running 40s on both wheels) and took it for its maiden voyage on the nearby practice course today. My gearing is annoying on the road (39 x 18) but it's really awesome climbing up things. I suck at hurdles and running up stairs though , but I didn't face plant and my bike held together, and the other newbs are nice, so all in all a good experience.

Been doing alot of shortish tempo rides and doing cyclocross specific training. We set up a little training course with barriers and a bunch of switchbacks with some hill and sand work. Do that twice a week with my teammates. Cyclocross is my favorite riding all year.

Yesterday I went to a different ride than usual. It was with these 2 older guys, who said they wanted to do 50 miles and they're pretty slow (like 16-17). I was like, awwww crap this is gonna suck!! But it ended up being tons of FUN! We rode to downtown Charleston and stopped for muffins and coffee, then rode around the old mansions for a while before going back. We joked about drafting behind the tourist carriage rides and just had a good time.

The weather was beautiful and it was nice to have a fun, relaxing ride where I'm not worried about being dropped around every corner And I ended up getting a workout anyway because they encouraged me to push ahead on long stretches and wait for them at a light. ]

^ Yeah my road bike has been all but hung up for the season, but I'll take it out for one more tri later this month. Even now I've been doing most of my riding around town, and on my Surly LHT out to the farm.

Here's a fun cyclocross related question: I just read that the UCI made the upper tire width 33 mm instead of 35 mm. I'm running 40s, and damn, do those barely fit between my frame. Does this only apply to elites, and will I be able to legally get away in the beginner cat 4 races with these? IIRC, people race in lower divisions with mountain bikes all the time, and those tires are definitely bigger than 33-35 mm. I'd rather not have to find a new tire set.

Freaked out a bit when I read your post seeing as how I just bought a nice pair of 35mm cross tires. looks like it was to take place before last season and I'm sure they didn't really enforce it last year as I saw mountain bikes on the course with huge tire widths (I rode a singlespeed 29er at one event with 2.1in tires) and a bunch of the cross bikes had 36mm or more tires on.

After looking it up, I read somewhere that it applies to the elite categories only, but that's not really the way the rules read so I suppose they could enforce it across the board if they wanted to. NCcyclocross is pretty cool though, I can't imagine them making a stink about it.

Raced the cyclocross kick off race at wake med park this morning. Finished about mid-pack but of course had a blast. As expected, there were all sorts of riders with fatter than 33mm tires--including a bunch of mountain bikes.

I would encourage everyone who likes riding their bike to give it a shot. Cycling doesn't get much more fun than that.

No Lion's Park for me. I've been laid up sick all weekend with a snotty cold and fever. Stupid undergrad in my lab got me sick, and I wasn't able to do any race or long rides in this beautiful weather.

Because this has been the season of everything sucking this far, I tapped out of the Washington Half-IM this morning. Temps in the 40s at 4:30 a.m., 30 mph winds and rain sheeting horizontally, I am almost sure they were going to turn it into a duathlon, and no way was I going to be able to drag myself through an extended run/bike/run with my busted ankle/heel, and risk a biking accident because of the roads. I had originally planned on doing the swim, bike, and half of the run.

I ride in this weather year round, and somehow commuting in 20 degree weather seems better than tri racing in it? And cross racing and practice in the cold doesn't bother me because it's only 30 min, not 6 hours.

Ok I'm a weenie . I drowned my sadness with peanut M and Ms and pizza so far today.

There will always be next tri season with better weather, and hopefully I'll not be injured.

^^ I saw a number of Duke tri and cycling team kids were going to sit out the Durham Humanity ride because of the shit weather, as well as several of my friends. Now I don't feel too bad about missing my event, either.

So they ended up doing the Habitat for Humanity ride? That one caught my interest, but I'm not quite up to that distance just yet. I just went out for a ride on the ATT instead. It was cold, but it was fine after the rain let up around 9:30 or so.

Yep. Once I got the blood flowing it was good--except for my freaking toes which were frozen the whole ride. I definitely need to pick up some toe covers. Pretty good headwind most of the time and my friends were being sluggish, so we went a lot slower than I would've liked.

I think so many people didn't show up to ride that they had tons of leftover food at the end. They gave each of us a box of our own pizza as we were leaving.

Yeah I've done the Bull Moon Ride the last 3 years in a row in July, and it is always a blast. It starts at sundown, and goes throughout Durham ~ 18 miles. Always fun to do on a bike with a friend. The beer afterward is good; they had local stuff this year (Triangle? Lone Rider? Don't remember) and plenty of veg friendly food.

We always go out partying and drinking afterwards.

Pro tip: you don't actually want to bring a nice road bike on it, because the roads in Durham suck. And, the full spandex setup is kinda overkill for 18 miles.

I also have a set of Industry 9 wheels: Ultralight XC on Stans ZTR 355 set up tubeless, Avid rotors and ti hardware. Great condition, no dents, and true. Comes with Bontrager Revolt tires mounted and sealed. I'll sell them for $560.00 New, these wheels are $1100.00, rotors and bolts would be another $80, tires $90, and tubeless setup $50. This is a hell of a deal if you have a need or desire for the best wheels made!

Both great deals for two totally different bikes and both are in awesome condition! A TWW discount will apply to the prices, email me via the posting for details or if you want wheels. I rarely remember to check on tdub.

My bike got covered in mud on the way back from that last Toue de Cure practice ride (fuck Raleigh's "greenways" is all I'll say), and I'm ashamed to admit I just finally cleaned it up this weekend. Thought about riding to work this morning, but it was still 30-something outside.

I'm probably going to regret it, but my friend and I are signed up to do the Tour de Cure's Resolution ride on Jan 1st. He doesn't drink, so he doesn't have much to worry about besides the cold...

I was invited to go on a Resolution ride as well, although not the one you speak of. I laughed after sending my regrets- realistically I know I'll be way too hungover to go. In general, early morning rides and late nights don't generally mix for those of us close to 30 .

Sounds plausible. I'm 5'4" and ride a 50 cm in road frames. Be sure to try it out, and make sure you can reach the handlebars and brakes without stretching, or conversely don't feel cramped in the cockpit.

1st cyclocross race tomorrow evers in Fayettenam- I'm going to be clueless with the other ladies in Cat 4 land .

I'm also signed up for the Durham women's cat 4 in a few weeks- I think I also want to run the Nascross5K race they're gonna have on the course in the morning.

^^^My dad is five seven and rides a 52cm. You should be able to make a 53 work. Like she said ^^, your main worry is how stretched you feel. You should be comfortable while keeping in mind it is a road bike so it's designed to make you feel more "leaned over" than on most other types of bikes.

^awesome. I will be there too riding in the men's cat 4 race. Helped a little putting the course together this afternoon. It's pancake flat and it's gonna be really fast.

^^ Great, I need flat and dry for my first time. One thing I suck at, as all newb CX'ers, is punching up short hills. I realize it's a dumb maneuver to take a singlespeed in the regular division, but I'd like to get the race done earlier, be with women at my newbie level, and I'm aiming to complete, not compete.

I think singlespeed weaknesses are covered up in cross. My dad races singlespeed in the cat 4 masters every weekend. Hell, I have 10 speeds in the back and I only really use 2-3 of them in a given race. I never change my front ring off the small.

Might be too late, but make sure and gear lower (or easier) than you would on the road. There are a few real short hills and as hard packed as the grass is, it's gonna feel like pedaling through pudding after a lap if you have a road gearing.

^ Don't worry, I'm geared down to something like 30 x 18. The course was a good confidence builder today, turns out my ability to run came up handy over that short hill section. I don't think I was dead last, and I passed some Masters dudes . Didn't trip, didn't fall, and made it over the barriers.

I was not amused by the 10 year old shorty telling me he was taking the inside around one turn. You can'tget mad at them when they're so cute, though.

How did you do?

Overall, fun day, I woulda stuck around longer but now I have to go help in the co-op.

Just got back after helping to break down the course. I finished 14 in the Cat 4... my best finish to date. More importantly, I beat the crap out of my little brother who had been talking smack before the race. Glad you had fun.

I am planning on doing one of the two races left... can't decide which one.

I'm doing Durham because it's close, and also live here. I saw the course last year and it's a goodmix of woods, pavement on the speedway, and annoying hills. Plus, free kegs.

I was 8 out of 16 in my class- not bad. I think riding with people way above my skill level helped, I was drilledby them on dismounts, riding down singletrack, and how to negotiate tight turns. Plus, I have a model of how to do it correctly.

So I got that bike! The forks/headset was a little loose so I took the assembly apart to see what the deal was. Turned out that i just needed to get press everything closer together, but when I took the headset apart the spacers quickly fell apart and I wasnt able to see in what order they went on How big of a deal is this?

Congrats man! As long as you have the headset around the frame, the spacer/stem order is no big deal. People move those around all the time to get the right height and reach adjustment.

Assuming it's one of the newer setups, to tighten it properly, keep the stem bolts firm, but loose enough to twist it around the steerer tube, then tighten the middle bolt (the longer one that actually goes into the steerer tube) to pull the headset together and remove any of that. Then tighten the stem bolts to make sure it doesn't move.